CEPU demands work on NBN ceases until workers and the public completely safe

TONY EASTLEY: A union involved in the roll-out of the NBN wants a critical part of the work halted until measures are put in place to safeguard workers and the community against the potential exposure to asbestos.

The union representing electrical workers subcontracted to work on the national broadband project is demanding a stop to all pit and pipeline remediation.

The Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union has written to Telstra and NBN Co demanding work cease until they can assure the workers and the public that they are safe.

The assistant national secretary of the union's electrical division Allen Hicks has been speaking to Alexandra Kirk.

ALLEN HICKS: Simply because we're not confident that there's appropriate control measures in place to deal with the existing risks that are being faced by workers with regards to asbestos.

And we need to be clear about it. We haven't asked them to cease all work. We've asked them to cease work where there's remediation going on with pits and pipes and that's where we're finding that there's a lot of exposures to asbestos.

ALEXANDRA KIRK: And if work stops, what do you want Telstra and NBN Co to do then?

ALLEN HICKS: What we want to be able to do with both Telstra and NBN is to sit down and go through and have a rigorous and robust look at their risk management processes and ensure that appropriate control measures are identified and developed and implemented so that way we don't have workers and the members of the community faced with this deadly fibre again.

ALEXANDRA KIRK: You put your concerns to them yesterday. Have they responded?

ALLEN HICKS: Yeah, both Telstra and NBN Co have responded and they've indicated, Telstra's indicated, that all remediation work has ceased and that they're more than willing to sit down with us and have some discussion about what appropriate control measures could be implemented to prevent this from occurring again.

ALEXANDRA KIRK: And what about NBN Co?

ALLEN HICKS: NBN Co have indicated that they want to sit down and meet with us and that they've indicated that their works, they're not doing works in the remediation area.

We've still got to have some further discussion with them because we believe there's a crossover between some of the work that they're doing in the, what we would call the greenfields areas, the new areas and the brownfields area which is the existing infrastructure. There is crossover there and we want to have some urgent discussions with them about that.

ALEXANDRA KIRK: So for all intents and purposes has all work stopped on the pit and pipe remediation?

ALLEN HICKS: Yes. Telstra and NBN have indicated that is the case, yes.

ALEXANDRA KIRK: How many workers do you have involved in the NBN project? And how worried are they about being exposed to asbestos?

ALLEN HICKS: Yeah look there's hundreds of workers involved in the NBN roll-out. We've got quite a large number of members across that. There's also quite a large group of smaller subcontractors which potentially aren't members of our union.

But in saying that we've been getting calls since this broke out in the media from a wide range of people involved in the roll-out and they are very concerned because the information is not there for them and they're trying to make informed views about what is and what isn't asbestos and if they have been exposed what their rights are and what the responsibilities of the company is, so.

ALEXANDRA KIRK: And how do you think Telstra and NBN Co can mitigate the risks associated with the remediation work and the NBN roll-out?

ALLEN HICKS: One of the simple, very simple things is if workers are trained and suitably qualified then what we've found over many years is that the risks are far less. And we put a proposal to NBN Co some two years ago where we developed a training program in consultation with not only NBN but with employers, with industry skills councils, about what we call NBN safety awareness.

And we went through a whole range of risks that might be faced by workers on the project and one of them was asbestos, how to identify asbestos, what you're required to do when you do find asbestos. You know, you call the hygienist in, you get them to check it, you use the appropriate (inaudible). All those sorts of things are covered off in the course.

But unfortunately what we found is that that information and that training isn't flowing on to workers and hence we're having the problems that we are.

ALEXANDRA KIRK: So your workers haven't been trained in dealing with asbestos?

ALLEN HICKS: No. They overwhelming majority when we're out there on the sites and our organisers are talking to workers on the ground, the overwhelming majority are saying they haven't been trained in this training program.

ALEXANDRA KIRK: Are you satisfied with the response then from both Telstra and NBN Co?

ALLEN HICKS: Look it's very early days because we need to sit down directly and speak to the decision makers in both Telstra and NBN. Obviously we welcome the response that they've ceased the remediation work and we welcome the fact that they're prepared to sit down with us and seek our input and our information and our knowledge that we have and try and come up with some ideas that we can move forth that put the appropriate control measures in place. That's all welcome.

There's a working group that was established by the Federal Government meeting today. So that'll be one of the first instances that we'll be able to get together and then obviously Telstra and NBN Co and ourselves will meet separately when and if necessary, as soon as practical, to try and get this resolved.

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